Pcb surface connector

ABSTRACT

A PCB surface connector has a contact box closed by an integrally hinged lid from which extend four rigid legs engageable at their feet in respective apertures in a board. Lateral sliding of the box on the board registers the feet with the board underside and a detent projecting from the box snaps into one of the apertures to latch the box in position. The legs support contact pressure of springs projecting from the box against the board surface and resist pull off vertically in relation to the board and in two lateral directions at right angles.

United States Patent 1191 Teagno et al.

[451 July 3,1973

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Sept. 5, 1970 Italy 29407 A/70 [52] US. Cl. 339/128, 339/17 C, 339/91 R, 339/95 R, 339/103 M, 339/176 MP [51] Int. Cl. H01r 13/48, HOSr 1/02 [58] Field of Search 339/17 C, 17 L, 17 M, 339/18 R, 17 F, 95,176 MP, 176 MP, 103 R,

103 M, 107, 126,128, 75 MP, 75 M, 79, 91

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,293,591 12/1966 Mayer, Jr 339/107 3,569,914 3/1971 Taylor et al. 339/107 3,633,152 1/1972 Podmore 339/17 F X 3,436,715 4/1969 Matthews 339/17 F FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 1,929,219 1/1970 Germany 339/128 1,488,690 6/1967 France 339 17 1= 1,194,539 6/1970 Great Britain 339/17 F Primary Examiner-Marvin A. Champion Assistant ExaminerTerrell P. Lewis Attorney William J. Keating and Jay L. Seitchik [5 7 ABSTRACT A PCB surface connector has a contact box closed by an integrally hinged lid from which extend four rigid legs engageable at their feet in respective apertures in a board. Lateral sliding of the box on the board registers the feet with the board underside and a detent projecting from the box snaps into one of the apertures to latch the box in position. The legs support contact pressure of springs projecting from the box against the board surface and resist pull off vertically in relation to the board and in two lateral directions at right angles.

3 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures /i I ll PCB SURFACE CONNECTOR This invention relates to an electrical connector housing and assembly which is particularly useful for effecting releasable connection to a printed circuit board.

In our prior US. Pat. No. 3,680,035 issued July 25, I972 we have claimed and disclosed an electrical connector assembly of this kind comprising a housing of resilient insulating material formed with feet projecting below a floor of the housing for penetrating apertures in and engaging the underside of a circuit board, at least two of the feet being spaced apart in a linear sense along the floor of the housing, one of the spaced feet being resiliently secured to the housing and resiliently movable in the linear sense and the other of the spaced feet being relatively rigidly secured to the housing.

In the disclosure of this earlier application the housing has four feet secured to a lid of the housing so that the feet operate to hold the lid in closed condition when the connector is engaged with the board. The board apertures are more closely spaced than the feet so that the resilient feet are flexed to engage the feet with the apertures and serve latchingly to hold the connector on the board. This connector is strongly resistant to pull-off forces in one direction parallel to the board but in some applications it is important that the connector should in addition be resistant to pull-off forces perpendicular to the board.

An electrical connector housing according to the present invention comprises an insulating box for receiving contacts with contact portions at apertures in a floor of the box, at least two feet projecting from the box below thefloor and rigidly secured to the housing, the feet being spaced apart in a linear sense along the floor, the two feet projecting away from each other, and one of the feet being longer than the other.

The invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying partly diagrammatic drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a connector assembly according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a contact for use in the assembly of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the assembly of FIG. I mounted on a printed circuit board and taken on the line 3-3 of FIG. 4, with the contact shown in broken lines and with the open condition of a lid part of the assembly shown fragmentarily in phantom lines;

FIG. 4 is a plan view of the housing of the FIG. 1 assembly;

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary view of part of a printed circuit board formed with apertures for the connector assembly of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 6 is a sectional side elevation of the board of FIG. 5 taken on line 66 with the connector assembly in phantom.

The housing 1 of the connector assembly of FIGS. 1 and 3 comprises a box 2 of resilient insulating material generally rectangular in plan view as seen in FIG. 4 and having a lid 3 integrally formed with the box 2 at one end at a hinge 4. Latches 5 in the box engage apertures 6 in the lid to hold the lid 3 in closed condition. Six contacts 7 secured to conductor wires 8, as shown in FIG. 2, are mounted in the box 2 in side-by-side spaced relation and are held in position by the lid 3. i

Each contact comprises at one end an insulation support and wire crimp section 9,10 and has a contact part 11 of generally inverted channel form. Contact springs 12 extend forwardly and downwardly from rear ends of the channel sides, and the floor of the channel is cut out and pushed down to define a back up spring 13 resisting upward'flexure of the springs 12. The forward ends of springs 12 are convexly curved in smooth arcuate fashion to present contact portions 14 which, as seen in FIG. 3, are exposed through the floor 15 of the housing at apertures 16 to engage surface conductors 17, FIG. 5, on a circuit board 18.

The contacts are mounted in respective cavities within the housing box 2 separated by housing wall portions 19, and projections 20 on the lid 3 hold the contacts against upward movement when the lid is closed as shown in FIG. 3. The conductor wires 8 extend through apertures 21 in the rear wall of the housing and are bounded on one side by the lid 3 and on the other side by the rear wall of the housing box 2. Portions of the contacts engage shoulders within the housing to resist pull-out forces on the wires 8.

The housing at each side is formed with a pair of legs 22,23, the legs being adjacent the front and rear ends of the housing. The legs 22,23 at each side are joined by a bridge portion 24 and the upper end of the rear leg 23 is integrally joined to the rear end of the lid 3 by a stand-offprojection 25 so that the bridge portion 24 and legs 22,23 are spaced outwardly from the adjacent side of the housing as seen in FIG. 4. The bridge portion 24 is spaced above the floor 15 of the box 2, and at each side adjacent the forward side of the rear leg 23, the housing box 2 is formed with an outward projection 26 below the bridge portion 24. The lower side of each projection 26 is formed with a detent surface 27 projecting below the floor 15 having a rear surface portion sloping upwardly towards the leg 23 at a shallow inclination relative to a forward surface portion sloping upwardly away from the leg 23 at a steep angle. Due to the resilience of the housing material, the detent 27 may be resiliently displaced upwardly by flexure of the projection 26 and the adjacent housing side wall.

The legs 22 and 23 are formed with feet 28,29 which project outwardly in relation to the space between the legs and perpendicular to the legs. The feet 28 are longer than the feet 29 and have upper flat surfaces 30 parallel to the housing floor 15. The feet 29 have upper surfaces 31 which slope upwardly from the legs 23 to high points at the ends of the feet, smoothly radiused to provide bearing surfaces 32.

The printed circuit board 18, as seen in FIG. 5, has six parallel spaced conductive strips 17 pitched apart in corresponding manner to the contact portions 14 of the connector assembly and four apertures 33,34 in positions corresponding to the feet 28,29. The apertures are of width tapering towards their remote ends and the two apertures 33, at the left in FIG. 5, are longer than the two apertures 34 in corresponding relation to the lengths of the feet 28 and 29 so that the feet 28,29 can be inserted through the apertures 33,34. In assembling the connector to the board 18, the forward feet 28 are first inserted at a downward inclination through respective apertures 33 and the connector assembly moved forwards, to the left in FIG. 3, and rotated clockwise to register feet 29 with apertures 34 and contact portions 14 with the contact strips 17. The connector housing 1 is pushed downwardly onto the board so that the feet 29 penetrate the apertures 34 until the upper surfaces 31,32 are disposed in alignment or just below the underside of the board 18. This effects upwardly flexure of detents 27 which engage the upper side of the board 18. The connector is then moved to the right to register the bearing surfaces 32 with the underside of the board 18. Rightward movement is continued until the detents 27 engage the left or forward ends of apertures 34 to latch the connector in position. The apertures 33 and 34 are so dimensioned and positioned that in the latching condition, the upper surfaces 30 of the forward feet 28 at their ends engage the underside of the board 18, and the rear, right hand, edges of the legs 23 engage the rear sides of the apertures 34 to resist further movement to the right of the connector on the board. The bearing surfaces 32 engage the underside of the board 18. The feet 28,29 resist pull off forces perpendicular to the board whilst the rear sides of legs 23 resist pull off in a rearward or rightward direction. The forward and rearward movement of the connector during assembly to the board effects forward and reverse wiping action between the contact portions 14 and respective conductive strips 17 over extended lengths 35 of the conductive strips 17. This ensures good contact surface cleaning.

The connector may be removed from the circuit board 18 by applying sufficient manual pressure to the right-hand edge of the box 2 (as seen in FIG. 3) to release the detents 27 from the apertures 34. The connector assembly is then moved to the left until the feet 29 are direcly below the associated apertures 34. The feet 29 may be removed by slightly pivoting the housing anti-clockwise. The connector assembly is then moved to the right and the feet 28 removed from the apertures 33 by tilting the housing further, anti-clockwise.

As shown in FIG. 6, the printed circuit board 18 is suitably mounted on a support 36 having respective cavities 37,38 beneath the board apertures 33,34. The cavities are longer than the associated apertures to permit movement of the feet 28,29 longitudinally of the cavities 37,38 and the cavities 38 below apertures 34 are less deep than cavities 37 below apertures 33, the cavities 38 having a depth corresponding to the height fee of feet 29 so that feet 29 are a free sliding fit between the underside of the board 18 and the floors of cavities 38. The apertures 34 have lengths corresponding to that of the feet 29 which is substantially equal to that of the thickness of the legs 23 plus the effective width of the detent 26,27. As a result the feet 29 can be passed through the apertures 34 but the feet 28 are too long to permit this. The floors of cavities 38 impede the insertion of the feet 28 at an inclination through the apertures 34 so that the board 18 is effectively polarised in relation to the connector which can only be connected in one position relative to the conductive strips 17.

We claim:

1. An electrical connector housing for effecting releasable connection to a printed circuit board comprising a box of resilient insulating material for receiving a contact, an aperture in a floor of said box for receiving a contact portion of said contact, a lid integrally connected by a hinge to the box, at least one pair of legs secured to said lid and rigidly mounted relative to each other, a foot formed at the end of each leg and projecting below the floor of said housing for penetrating apertures in and engaging the underside of the circuit board, the feet of each pair of legs being spaced apart along the floor and projecting away from each other and with one foot being longer than the other, and a resilient detent formed on said box and projecting below the floor, said detent being disposed between the feet of the pair of legs and adjacent the shorter foot for engaging an edge of one of said circuit board apertures.

2. A connector housing as claimed in claim 1, in which the housing is of generally rectangular form having two pairs of legs, one pair at each end, the legs of one pairbeing joined to respective legs of the other pair by bridge portions integrally connected to the lid by projections.

3. A connector housing as claimed in claim 2, in which the hinge is adjacent the pair of legs associated with the longer feet, and the bridge portions are integrally connected to the lid distal from the hinge and adjacent the legs associated with the shorter feet. 

1. An electrical connector housing for effecting releasable connection to a printed circuit board comprising a box of resilient insulating material for receiving a contact, an aperture in a floor of said box for receiving a contact portion of said contact, a lid integrally connected by a hinge to the box, at least one pair of legs secured to said lid and rigidly mounted relative to each other, a foot formed at the end of each leg and projecting below the floor of said housing for penetrating apertures in and engaging the underside of the circuit board, the feet of each pair of legs being spaced apart along the floor and projecting away from each other and with one foot being longer than the other, and a resilient detent formed on said box and projecting below the floor, said detent being disposed between the feet of the pair of legs and adjacent the shorter foot for engaging an edge of one of said circuit board apertures.
 2. A connector housing as claimed in claim 1, in which the housing is of generally rectangular form having two pairs of legs, one pair at each end, the legs of one pair being joined to respective legs of the other pair by bridge portions integrally connected to the lid by projections.
 3. A connector housing as claimed in claim 2, in which the hinge is adjacent the pair of legs associated with the longer feet, and the bridge portions are integrally connected to the lid distal from the hinge and adjacent the legs associated with the shorter feet. 